Op. 28 No. 1, Prelude in C major

Copy of A made by Julian Fontana (lost, known from a photocopy) as the basis for the first German edition. It is evidenced by, e.g. the even numbers with which the engraver marked the division of the text into lines and pages, carried out in GE. As a whole, the copyist duplicated the A text rather carefully, nonetheless making a number of mistakes, mostly omissions, the gravest of which are omissions of entire bars in Preludes in G minor no. 12 and in B no. 21. Interestingly, several other important errors appear at the end of pieces or pages (in the last line), e.g.:

• in the Prelude in A minor no. 2, omitted L.H. slurs in b. 14-16 and 18-19,
• in the Prelude in A no. 7, erroneous L.H. chord in b. 15,
• in the Prelude in E no. 9, omitted L.H. slur in b. 9-12,
• in the Prelude in C minor no. 10, omitted arpeggio signs in b. 9-14,
• in the Prelude in B no. 11, omitted L.H. slur in b. 26-27,
• in the Prelude in E minor no. 14, omitted  in b. 18-19,
• in the Prelude in D no. 15, omitted dynamic markings in b. 83-87,
• in the Prelude in B minor no. 16, omitted performance markings in b. 40-45,
• in the Prelude in E no. 19, omitted performance markings in b. 28-32,
• in the Prelude in C minor no. 20, omitted  sign in b. 12,
• in the Prelude in D minor no. 24, omitted R.H. slurs and accents in b. 59-65, omitted f³ in b. 70.

Other significant deviations from the text of A include:

• a² instead of a² in the Prelude in D no. 5, t. 16,
• g¹ instead of f¹ in the Prelude in B minor no. 6, t. 19,
• e¹-f¹ instead of f¹ in the Prelude in D no. 15, t. 17,
• D instead of F in the Prelude in D minor no. 24, t. 31,
• omitted quaver d¹ in the Prelude in A no. 17, b. 19,
• omitted crotchet f² in the Prelude in F no. 23, b. 16,
• omitted slurs in the Preludes in C minor no. 10, b. 11-12, G minor no. 12, b. 61-64, B no. 21, b. 7-13;
• omitted hairpins in the Preludes in G no. 3, b. 17-18, F minor no. 8, b. 12, 28 and 33, A no. 17, b. 1-2 or D minor no. 24, b. 4-7 and 22-24,
• omitted  at the beginning of the Prelude in E minor no. 4, and  in the Prelude in F minor no. 18, b. 17,
• cresc. instead of dim. in the Prelude in G no. 3, b. 31,
• erroneous allocation of the last L.H. quaver (e¹) to the R.H. part (as a crotchet) in the Prelude in B no. 21, b. 4,
• erroneous rhythmic value of the chord in the Prelude in F no. 13, b. 6.

There are also quite a few various inaccuracies, some of them being revisions, e.g. the notation of grace notes having been standardized by replacing non-slashed quavers with slashed, e.g. in the Prelude in A minor no. 2 or in E minor no. 4.

Fontana introduced few apt additions, mainly omitted accidentals, e.g. in the Preludes in A no. 7, b. 13, A no. 17, b. 49 or G minor no. 22, b. 3. He also added  in b. 65 of the Prelude in A no. 17.

In the Prelude in C, Fontana overlooked the stretto - - - indication in b. 17-21 and the beam of the R.H. bottom voice in b. 26.

Chopin did not correct FC, since it does not bear any traces of corrections or additions that could have been ascribed to his hand.

We base the approximate dating of the manuscript on the following:

• Chopin sent A to Fontana for copying on January 22, 1839. Even if the letter had reached Fontana within a few days and provided that he started working on it immediately, it is difficult to assume that he would have managed to copy this extensive manuscript (and not easy to read) still in January.
• On the other hand, in a letter to Fontana from March 7, 1839, Chopin already sends instructions on how to spend the fee received from Pleyel, who was the Parisian publisher of the Preludes. The fee was generally paid upon the receipt of the manuscript (in this case A) by the publisher, which could not have happened before  FC was completed. It is confirmed by another letter, from March 12 – the publishing issues of the Preludes were apparently advanced, since the letter discusses only the issues concerning the publication of subsequent pieces, i.e. the Ballade in F Op. 38 and the Polonaises Op. 40, which indicates that both Stichvorlagen, hence also FC, had to be finished by that time.

Therefore, the copy was most probably developed in February 1839; certainly not later than at the beginning of March.

Certain pencilled markings on some of the preludes (mainly filling in the accidentals, e.g. in the Preludes in A minor no. 2, b. 9, B minor no. 6, b. 12-14, G minor no. 12, b. 23 and 30, E minor no. 14, b. 14, D no. 15, b. 12 and 75, A no. 17, b. 19, 26, 33, 44 and 53, in C minor, b. 8, F no. 23, b. 13 and 18) were made by the long-time owner of the manuscript, Hermann Scholtz, who based his own edition of the Preludes (Peters, Leipzig 1879) on FC.